Federal Communications Commission DA 11-1489 Before The

Federal Communications Commission DA 11-1489 Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) KJLA, LLC ) ) CSR-8149-A For Modification of the Television Market for ) Station KJLA-DT, Ventura, California ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: August 31, 2011 Released: August 31, 2011 By the Senior Deputy Chief, Policy Division, Media Bureau: I. INTRODUCTION 1. KJLA, LLC, licensee of broadcast television station KJLA-DT, Channel 49, Ventura, California (the “Station” or “KJLA”), filed the above-captioned petition for special relief seeking to modify the station’s market to include communities and unincorporated areas served by CoxCom, Inc. (“Cox”) and located within Los Angeles and Orange Counties in the Los Angeles Designated Market Area (“DMA”).1 No opposition to the petition has been filed. For the reasons discussed below, we grant KJLA’s petition. II. BACKGROUND 2. Pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act and implementing rules adopted by the Commission, commercial television broadcast stations are entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable systems located within their markets.2 A station’s market is its “designated market area,” or DMA, as defined by Nielsen Media Research.3 A DMA is a geographic market designation that defines each 1 Petition for Special Relief filed Mar. 26, 2009 by KJLA, LLC at 1 (hereinafter “Petition”). KJLA requests the inclusion of the following communities from (1) Los Angeles County (the “Los Angeles communities”): Los Angeles (San Pedro), L.A. County (unincorporated), Fort MacArthur AFB, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Rolling Hills; and the following communities from (2) Orange County (the “Orange County communities”): Aliso Viejo, Camp Pendleton, Coto De Caza, Dana Point, Marine Air Station (El Toro), Emerald Bay, Foothill Ranch, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Modjeska Canyon, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, Orange, Portola Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Silverado Canyon, Trabuco Canyon, Tustin/Tustin Heights, and Marine Air Station (Tustin). Petition at 1 n.1. 2 Implementation of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, Broadcast Signal Carriage Issues, 8 FCC Rcd 2965, 2976-2977 (1993) (“Must Carry Order”). 3 Section 614(h)(1)(C) of the Communications Act, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides that a station’s market shall be determined by the Commission by regulation or order using, where available, commercial publications which delineate television markets based on viewing patterns. See 47 U.S.C. (continued.…) 1 Federal Communications Commission DA 11-1489 television market exclusive of others, based on measured viewing patterns. Essentially, each county in the United States is allocated to a market based on which home-market stations receive a preponderance of total viewing hours in the county. For purposes of this calculation, the total television viewing audience attained by a broadcast station is considered, regardless of the delivery technology used to receive its signal – whether the signal is received over-the-air, or via cable, wireless cable, DBS, SMATV or OVS systems.4 3. Under the Act, however, the Commission is also directed to consider changes in market areas. Section 614(h)(1)(C) provides that the Commission may: with respect to a particular television broadcast station, include additional communities within its television market or exclude communities from such station’s market to better effectuate the purposes of this section.5 In considering such requests, the 1992 Cable Act provides that: the Commission shall afford particular attention to the value of localism by taking into account such factors as - (I) whether the station, or other stations located in the same area, have been historically carried on the cable system or systems within such community; (II) whether the television station provides coverage or other local service to such community; (III) whether any other television station that is eligible to be carried by a cable system in such community in fulfillment of the requirements of this section provides news coverage of issues of concern to such community or provides carriage or coverage of sporting and other events of interest to the community; (IV) evidence of viewing patterns in cable and noncable households within the areas served by the cable system or systems in such community.6 The legislative history of the provision states that: where the presumption in favor of [DMA] carriage would result in cable subscribers losing access to local stations because they are outside the (…continued from previous page) §534(h)(1)(C). Section 76.55(e) requires that a commercial broadcast television station’s market be defined by The Nielsen Company’s DMAs. 47 C.F.R. § 76.55(e); see Definition of Markets for Purposes of the Cable Television Broadcast Signal Carriage Rules, 14 FCC Rcd 8366 (1999) (“Modification Final Report and Order”). 4 For a more complete description of how counties are allocated, see Nielsen Media Research’s Nielsen Station Index: Methodology Techniques and Data Interpretation. 5 47 U.S.C. § 534(h)(1)(C). 6 Id. 2 Federal Communications Commission DA 11-1489 [DMA] in which a local cable system operates, the FCC may make an adjustment to include or exclude particular communities from a television station’s market consistent with Congress’ objective to ensure that television stations be carried in the area in which they serve and which form their economic market. * * * * [This subsection] establishes certain criteria which the Commission shall consider in acting on requests to modify the geographic area in which stations have signal carriage rights. These factors are not intended to be exclusive, but may be used to demonstrate that a community is part of a particular station’s market.7 In adopting rules to implement this provision, the Commission indicated that requested changes should be considered on a community-by-community basis rather than on a county-by-county basis, and that they should be treated as specific to particular stations rather than applicable in common to all stations in the market.8 4. In the Modification Final Report and Order, the Commission, in an effort to promote administrative efficiency, adopted a standardized evidence approach for modifications that requires the following evidence be submitted: (1) A map or maps illustrating the relevant community locations and geographic features, station transmitter sites, cable system headend locations, terrain features that would affect station reception, mileage between the community and the television station transmitter site, transportation routes and any other evidence contributing to the scope of the market. (2) Grade B contour maps9 delineating the station’s technical service area10 and showing the location of the cable system headends and communities 7 H.R. Rep. 102-628, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. 97 (1992). 8 Must Carry Order, 8 FCC Rcd 2965, 2977 n.139. 9 Service area maps using Longley-Rice (version 1.2.2) propagation curves may also be included to support a technical service exhibit. The Longley-Rice model provides a more accurate representation of a station’s technical coverage area because it takes into account such factors as mountains and valleys that are not specifically reflected in a traditional Grade B contour analysis. In situations involving mountainous terrain or other unusual geographic features, Longley-Rice propagation studies can aid in determining whether or not a television station actually provides local service to a community under factor two of the market modification test. 10 While the Grade B contour defined an analog television station's service area, see 47 C.F.R. § 73.683(a), with the completion of the full power digital television transition on June 12, 2009, there are no longer any full power analog stations. Instead, as set forth in Section 73.622(e), a station's DTV service area is defined as the area within its noise-limited contour where its signal strength is predicted to exceed the noise-limited service level – which for UHF stations is 41 dBu. See 47 C.F.R. § 73.622(e). Accordingly, the Commission has treated a digital station’s noise limited service contour as the functional equivalent of an analog station’s Grade B contour. See Report To Congress: The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004; Study of Digital Television Field Strength Standards and Testing Procedures, 20 FCC Rcd 19504, 19507, ¶ 3, 19554, ¶ 111 (2005); Implementation (continued.…) 3 Federal Communications Commission DA 11-1489 in relation to the service areas. (3) Available data on shopping and labor patterns in the local market. (4) Television station programming information derived from station logs or the local edition of the television guide. (5) Cable system channel line-up cards or other exhibits establishing historic carriage, such as television guide listings. (6) Published audience data for the relevant station showing its average all day audience (i.e., the reported audience averaged over Sunday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-1 a.m., or an equivalent time period) for both cable and noncable households or other specific audience indicia, such as station advertising and sales data or viewer contribution records.11 5. Petitions for special relief to modify television markets that do not include the above evidence shall be dismissed without

Load more